2023 Possibilities and Breakthroughs

I recently watched a documentary on folks who’s lifelong dream was to climb Mt. Everest. This has been the fascination of many for over a century. According to Wikipedia, “The 1922 British Mount Everest expedition was the first mountaineering expedition with the express aim of making the first ascent of Mount Everest.” Men and women across the globe have made this trek. Some have been successful, others have turned back, while others have lost their lives. Needless to say the possibility for some to get to the top is worth the attempt. As I watched the program I was captivated by the willingness of the individuals who were committing to this dream and subjecting themselves to the rigors of preparing for the climb. From stepping foot on the very bottom level of the mountain then climbing just to base camp is a thirty day expedition. This allows the individual to adapt slowly and adjust to the elevation that will be so incredibly costly to the body, brain and lungs. Nonetheless once they get to base camp it will take nothing short of mental and physical resolve to breakthrough every obstacle to continue the ascent. 

Have you like me, looked back on 2022 wishing you had given more attention and resolve to reach higher in your walk with God? Were there days that you lacked the willingness to sacrifice whatever discomfort or pain in order see breakthrough? Were there still those areas of (laziness, procrastinations, unchecked private recreations, unguarded relationships, misplaced priorities etc. )that held you back for for yet another year? You believe in all the possibilities of what God is able to do in you and for you, but the commitment to see it through caused you to turn back to the patterns you have become accustomed to. 

Maybe this year you didn’t even bother to make another new year’s resolution.

Sisters, at the beginning of this New Year I’m full of hope. As I look into God’s word I find many individuals who were men and women of flesh just like us. They too realized that walking with God is not a commitment for the faint of heart. They had their days when it seemed as though everything on the outside was against them, while everything on the inside was it’s own daily battle. What do we learn from one such individual in God’s word?

The apostle Paul said this in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

What kept Paul going even though he confesses that he hadn’t obtained it yet? He tells us, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (vs. 10-11).

Paul was also transparent about another thing. He had his struggles! In Romans 7:18 he confesses, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

With that humbling reality, what can we learn from Paul’s life? He never stopped short of his resolve to reach higher. No problem, no pain, no persecution, no hardship or heartbreak, no abandonment or betrayal, no weakness or weariness could persuade his resolve to the possibilities and breakthroughs that were yet in store by God’s power. 

Remember friends, your eternal weight of glory in this New Year and keep your eyes on Jesus!

“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let’s neither faint nor fear.
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”

― John Bunyan The Pilgrims Progress